The circle of life. Stores fail for complex reasons → retailer quietly posts accurate analysis of its own mistakes → retailer loudly posts press release blaming shoplifters and gangs → media likes …
If you walk into basically any CVS in America, you’ll notice the number of employees working the floor is inversely proportional to the amount of merchandise locked behind plastic cases. It’s far more cost efficient for the corporation to just pay fewer employees and lock up as much of the high-margin merch as possible.
Without a doubt, they lose sales because of this tactic, but they also have less overhead and almost nonexistent theft. I don’t think this trend came as a result of high levels of shoplifting, it was just the inevitable outcome of corporate cost-cutting practices. The companies won’t hesitate to blame these decisions on rising levels of theft and organized crime, though, as if the act of shoplifting isn’t as old as commerce itself. It’s not a new problem, it’s just a new convenient solution that saves the retail giants a ton of money.
If you walk into basically any CVS in America, you’ll notice the number of employees working the floor is inversely proportional to the amount of merchandise locked behind plastic cases. It’s far more cost efficient for the corporation to just pay fewer employees and lock up as much of the high-margin merch as possible.
Without a doubt, they lose sales because of this tactic, but they also have less overhead and almost nonexistent theft. I don’t think this trend came as a result of high levels of shoplifting, it was just the inevitable outcome of corporate cost-cutting practices. The companies won’t hesitate to blame these decisions on rising levels of theft and organized crime, though, as if the act of shoplifting isn’t as old as commerce itself. It’s not a new problem, it’s just a new convenient solution that saves the retail giants a ton of money.